PhotoShelter Unveils Lattice: A Pinterest-Like Curation and Discovery Platform for Pro Photographers

Two hundred million images… PhotoShelter has amassed over 200M images from over 80,000 photographers in the almost a decade since they burst onto the scene. And today they unveil a new way for those 80,000 photographers to share those 200M+ images with fans that might not even know they exist yet.

It’s called Lattice, and maybe the simplest way we could describe it is Pinterest for Professional Photographers, Curators, and Photography Lovers.

That description, like most quick one-liners, really doesn’t do it justice though. Lattice is a professional Pinterest-like solution for a problem PhotoShelter is more than happy to have. They have a ton of great photography on their servers, and they want to make that photography and the creators behind it more visible to the millions of people out there who would appreciate, share and buy these images.

PhotoShelter calls Lattice a “curation and discovery experience,” and it’s based around expertly curated, interactive boards that aim to showcase the best photos in any given genre that you can find within the PhotoShelter archives.

At the beginning, Curation will be invitation only. Those who receive (or request and are given) an invite can create boards around a theme, project or passion and fill those boards with the best publicly searchable PhotoShelter photography they can find.

But the curation doesn’t stop there. PhotoShelter photographers can then get involved by suggesting other images that they feel might be a good fit. These images will end up in the board’s ‘stream,’ which the curator can then review, promoting the best images up to the main board.

When all is said and done, boards will look something like this one by PhotoShelter CEO Andrew Fingerman:

Of course, curation is only half of the game. On the other side of the screen are Lattice visitors who are discovering new photography and connecting with the photographers behind those images by following their favorite boards and receiving alerts any time more photos are added.

And when they find photography they really love, they can connect with the photographer, visit their PhotoShelter site and purchase prints straight from the Lattice board they’re browsing.

For now, the Lattice boards already available are being curated by a pre-selected group of PhotoShelter staff and invited curators, but you can get in on the action as well by requesting an invite here.

And since this is a work in progress, PhotoShelter will be keeping a close eye on how people interact with/within Lattice, and make adjustments as needed. “This will soon be joined by new, powerful search capabilities,” writes Fingerman on the PhotoShelter blog, “more robust features, as well as opening up curation more broadly.”

To check out Lattice for yourself and start following a few boards, head over to the website by clicking here.